Replies

1. 
   jackplane | Jan 27, 2005 11:26pm | #1

   No, as long as they are the same specie.

2. 
   JohnWW | Jan 27, 2005 11:52pm | #2

   If you cut your own veneer you can get an exact match for the solid wood in the piece.  Also a shop made veneer will be thicker than a fragile commercial veneer, the thicker veneer will be far less vulnerable to damage and sand through.

   John W. 

1. 
   Jellyrug | Jan 28, 2005 12:55am | #3

   John,

   Cutting my own veneer, using MDF as the board, how thin do I have to go to make sure there is no risk of the veneer cracking, or curling, due to expansion and contraction in the veneer?

1. 
   Lilshaver | Jan 28, 2005 01:20am | #4

   In my experience, 1/8" honduras mahog. is too thick. I redid a large table for this particular lesson. I believe that 3/32" is the generally acceptable upper limit for veneer to be considered stabilized. Personally, I think I'll let 1/16" be my upper limit.Jeff

1. 
   Jellyrug | Jan 28, 2005 01:40am | #5

   I have heard of this problem before.

   To cut your own veneer down to 1/16 on a band saw though, if this is wide, say above 8", may not be possible.

   How do you get it this thin?

2. 
   JohnWW | Jan 28, 2005 03:33am | #6

   I second Jellyrugs opinion that 1/8 inch thick can have problems with fine cracks forming in the veneered face in very dry weather and possibly other problems. 

   A well tuned band saw can resaw to under an 1/8th, the bigger problem is cleaning up the sawn side of the veneer and evening up it's thickness if needed.  A drum sander works well as does attaching the rough veneer to a MDF backing board with double sided tape and running the assembly through a thickness planer. 

   Another approach I've used with success is to cut the veneer thick and glue it onto the substrate at full thickness with the sawn face up.  Later, after the glue is dry, you can pass the glued up panel through a planer to thin down the face veneer to the desired thickness.  Using this method there is no reason you couldn't do the final thicknessing and finishing with hand planes and a scraper which would allow you to work with a panel too large for the machines you have available.

   John W.